Ecolinguistics as an alternative explanation for ecological problems: The non-balanced relationship of human beings and nature

Environmental problems continue to exist and occur today. The discourse of the phenomenon of environmental damage is still developing. However, existing discourses still could neither grasp the root of the problem nor provide the solution to change the destructive paradigm. The destruction of our environment is going to be inevitable if we could not find an alternative solution that is relevant to this issue. This research focuses on three main thoughts of ecological problems, namely deep ecology, social ecology, and ecofeminism. All of them have different assumptions on each problem. It is assumed that deep ecology, social ecology, and ecofeminism have provided sufficient guidelines and even solutions for environmental problems. However, this research argues that they have not arrived at the answer for existing ecological problems, which have been ongoing for decades. This research presents Ecolinguistic as an alternative answer to the unanswered ecological problem. Language and ecology can relate one and another in a way that can solve the environmental problem which exists in our world. In Ecolinguistics, language has a large influence to shape human thinking patterns in dealing with nature and understanding our position in relation to nature. As language takes many things in nature to enrich itself, language has a responsibility to nature, particularly in how the former represents the latter. The methods that are used to achieve results of this research on language, which have a strong influence on human mind and view, are alternative explanation method and phenomenology. This phenomenology is used in explaining not only how human subjects relate to nature, but also how humans are the conscious creature and reader related to objects. This research focuses not only on literary work, but also on the overall language used which greatly influence and reciprocate human perception and awareness on nature. Phenomenologically, language, people and nature share the same position. They not only quietly act as a permanent subject or object. Instead, the roles of the subject and the object are mixed and fused into one. Through those methods, this research attempts to observe the connection between language and nature as well as between language and humans. Both are then considered as ecolinguistics. In the end, there must be a shift in the use of language that destructive thinking and behavior towards nature are transformed into more ecological ones.